How to fix “The selected disk is of GPT partition style” when installing Windows 10
You can create a Windows 10 install drive with the media creation tool. The tool allows anyone to create installation media for other PCs and using it is simple. All you need to do is boot from the USB drive, select which drive on your system you want to install Windows 10 on, and it will take care of the rest. Sometimes though, when you select a drive to install Windows, you get an error message telling you it can’t install on the selected drive because ‘The selected disk is of GPT partition style’.
The ‘The selected disk is of GPT partition style’ error makes it seem like there is something wrong with the disk, or that you might have created the wrong kind of installation media but that isn’t the case. The installation media and your disk are both fine. What you need to do is change how you’re booting from the USB disk.
Fix “The selected disk is of GPT partition style”
You get the ‘The selected disk is of GPT partition style’ error when you have Secure Boot turned off and your disk is a GPT disk. If you intend to boot with Secure Boot turned off, your disk ought to be MBR. You can convert a disk from MBR to GPT, or from GPT to MBR but if you’re not comfortable changing the partition style on your disk, or you can’t risk losing data, you have a much simpler option; turn Secure boot back on.
Users normally turn Secure Boot off because they need to change the first boot device. If you’re turning Secure Boot off that means your BIOS is using UEFI and you can’t figure out how to change the first boot device on it.
The first thing you need to do is turn Secure Boot back on. If you didn’t turn it off yourself, and you don’t know how to do it, turn your system on and access BIOS. Go to the Boot tab, and look for the Secure Boot option. Change it to On or Enabled, and save the change.
Connect your installation disk to your system and restart your system. Pay close attention to the boot screen and it will tell you how to get to your boot options. That’s where you can select the boot device on UEFI BIOS. If you still have trouble with it, you can read our guide that tells you how in greater detail.
